My Birthday

First of all, to all who sent birthday wishes, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

            I had a wonderful 21^st birthday!  When I walked into the kitchen for breakfast yesterday, I was greeted by Ricardo, who usually doesn’t come to the house for breakfast but was there for my birthday, Fortunata, and Norma who all gave me big birthday hugs.  Mariska gave me a card at breakfast and we had the Peruvian birthday treat of buttery hot chocolate.  We also had lemon sponge cake along with a big slice of bread.  During breakfast, Fortunata and Ricardo told me how much my Spanish has improved and Fortunata gave me a round of applause.  This was probably the best birthday present they could have given me!  I was also able to carry on a conversation with them about what I will be doing with my family this coming week when they come to visit (two more days!! I’m so excited!).

            After breakfast, I went to the bakery down the street to pick up the cake that I had ordered.  On Saturday, I had gone to the bakery and ordered the cake completely in Spanish - I was so proud of myself.  However, my order receipt had somehow ended up at the bottom of the pile and they did not actually make my cake.  So, when I walked in at 8 a.m. and asked for my cake, the woman looked at me like I was crazy and asked when I had placed the order.  I told her Saturday and, with a panicked look, she searched through the piles of receipts until she found my order.  Then, without a word, she quickly left the bakery.  I stood there for a couple minutes wondering what her quick exit could mean, but luckily she returned and told me that I would just have to wait half an hour for the cake.  Although I was supposed to be at my school by 8:30, I decided that it would be fine to be a little late given how late Vanessa (my teacher) sometimes is and because I had already told her that I would be bringing a cake to share with the class, so I couldn‘t show up without one.

            While I waited the half hour, I bought a passion fruit and ate it as I took a nice walk around Pisac.  It was nice to see the market being set up and people going off to work and school.  At 8:30, I went back to the bakery for my cake.  Of course, it was not ready.  I sat down at one of the tables and waited for the next 40 minutes for the cake.  I actually had a really good time people watching.  People from so many different backgrounds came into the bakery - women dressed in traditional Quechua clothes ordering bread, a three year old boy by himself who came in to buy a dozen rolls, tourists, a dad who bought his son a cup of jello and a cookie, along with many others.  Finally at 9:10, my cake was ready!  The woman wrote “Feliz cumpleanos Abby” on it and then I took the cake and went to the taxi.

            When I got to school, I was swarmed by my 18 children all giving me birthday hugs and shouting “Feliz cumpleanos.”  One girl gave me a present (a picture frame) and Vanessa gave me a card that she had written a nice note on and had all the kids sign.  The kids were very excited about my birthday and that there would be cake.  To Vanessa and my surprise, several children had brought in food for the party.  On Monday, Vanessa told the children that my birthday was the next day and that we might have a party, but did not ask them to bring anything in.  One kid brought in a garbage bag full of popcorn, another brought soda, and someone else brought animal crackers and chips.  I thought that it would just be a normal day at school with an added bonus of my class singing me happy birthday and then I would serve them cake.  I was wrong!  After the kids had lunch at 11:00, we moved all of the tables around the walls of the room and brought in more chairs.  Then all of the kids and teachers from the other two classrooms came into my classroom to join in the party.  First, each class danced for me.  This consisted of a video of traditional dances and music being played on the TV, while the kids stared at the TV and copied the dance steps.  It was adorable.  Then we passed around chips and popcorn and all of the kids danced together.  Then they sang me “Happy Birthday,” first in English (which they all knew) and then in Spanish.  Then I blew out my birthday candle and it is tradition for the birthday person to take a bite out of the cake before it is cut, so I did to the cheering of the children as the principal pushed my face further into the cake!  After, a few kids stood up and told me to have a good day and then Vanessa gave me a nice speech, in English, about how glad she was to have me in the class and to have a wonderful birthday.  It was so nice.

            I was glad that I bought a big cake.  I thought that it would be for just 20 people, but we ended up being able to serve 45 people.  The party lasted the rest of the day and at 1:00 it was time to go home.  It was so fun and unexpected to have this celebration.

            Lunch was normal except, like at breakfast, Fortunata’s pre-meal prayer centered around me having a nice birthday.  It was very nice to hear.

            On Tuesdays there is always a care workshop where all of the volunteers in kindergartens gather to talk about our experiences over the past week.  Because of my birthday, Yessika brought in a cake to share and I was sung to by her and the volunteers.  Then, for dinner, Fortunata had bought another cake for me and I was sung to again by Fortunata, Mariska, Norma, and Ronald.  We didn’t have anything for dinner but cake and tea.  Then, after dinner and after talking to my family for a few minutes, the other four volunteers living in Pisac came over to our house and we hung out a played cards and ate more cake.

            It was a great day full of lots of celebrating and even more cake!  I cannot believe how old I am and I could not have asked for a better birthday here in Peru.

Pancakes

    On Friday, Mariska and I asked Fortunata if we could make pancakes this weekend and she said (with a big smile) that we could.  I asked if Saturday or Sunday would be better and she said Sunday because then Chaska would be there.  So, Saturday night after dinner, Mariska and I went shopping for pancake ingredients.  I hadn’t thought that this would be very challenging, but little things like what is baking powder called in Spanish?, made our shopping excursion harder than expected!  Luckily I am feeling much more confident in my Spanish and between that and my handy Spanish/English dictionary, I was able to ask where levadura en polvo (baking powder) was and we figured out where the harina (flour) was on our own.
    This morning, we took over the kitchen at 7:20 and Fortunata helped us get set up with a frying pan, a bowl, and measuring cups.  I was so happy that they had measuring cups and teaspoons…I did not expect to see them because Fortunata never measures anything when she cooks.  Mariska and I worked together to make the banana and apple pancakes and at 8:15, Fortunata, Mariska, Chaska and I sat down to eat.  There were only two things that were frustrating about making the pancakes: 1) the heat on the stove was very irregular, so we didn’t know if the pancakes would burn - this made us appreciate Fortunata’s cooking even more, though and 2) we had bought whipped cream powder that you were just supposed to add water to and mix, but it never actually whipped, so we didn’t use it - it probably would have worked if we had an electric mixer.
    The pancakes were a huge success.  We originally decided to make pancakes because Fortunata is constantly talking about a past volunteer who made pancakes and she obviously loved them.  After Fortunata ate one pancake, she said that the pancakes were “mas diferente” (very different) from the other volunteer’s…I held my breath in anticipation, thinking this was a bad thing, but then she said that ours were “mas rico” (more delicious).  YES!  Mariska and I were thrilled.  I also had brought maple syrup to them as a gift at the beginning of my stay, which Fortunata, Chaska, and Mariska had never tried, and they all loved it.  Peruvians use more sugar than I have ever seen anyone use, so I was not surprised that the liked the maple syrup.
    After eating, Fortunata thanked us with a big smile and we knew that we had done a good job.  It was a great feeling.  It feels simple to just make pancakes - I do it all the time at home, but for Fortunata this was a big treat and it felt so nice to do something for her.  It was a good learning experience for me to shop and cook in a Spanish speaking place and the happiness around the breakfast table was wonderful.

The table set with the pancakes and maple syrup

Pictures!

Looking out over Lake Titicaca from Amantani Island

A floating island at Lake Titicaca

The day I got back from Lake Titicaca, there was a festival in San Salvador for the Virgen del Rosario, so we took the children to the Plaza in San Salvador to watch a parade of people dancing in colorful clothes, wigs, and masks with big noses.

Family Picture: Left to Right - Fortunata, Mariska, me, and Ricardo with Yonyo in the background on Fortunata's birthday.

Every Wednesday, Projects Abroad has a social for its volunteers.  In past weeks, we have had a barbeque, gone to "The Chocolate Museum" in Cusco, and played the Peruvian game "Sapo."  This past Wednesday, we went on a great hike starting in Calca, which is a nearby city to Pisac, and were led to Incan ruins that are not well-known.  To get to the ruins, we walked through fields of corn and people's backyards.  There were no tourists at the ruins and the only other people there were some local villagers picking flowers.  It was very cool to be able to see these ruins that I would not have been able to find by myself!

Feliz Cumpleaños, Fortunata

             Sunday was Fortunata’s birthday.  Mariska and I asked on Friday about her birthday and if there would be a fiesta but she kind of shrugged it off, only assuring us that there would be cake and hot chocolate.  Sunday morning, not knowing what to expect after seeing the house cleaned and lots of flowers Saturday evening, we decided not to make pancakes.  Instead, we got up early Sunday morning and went to the Pisac market to buy flowers.  On Sundays, the market opens earlier than other days and, in addition to the regular crafts, there are people selling fruits, vegetable, and flowers.  We bought the flowers and came back to the house and got the card we had made the night before.  We gave the card and flowers to Fortunata before breakfast and she loved it!  She was very happy and insisted on taking pictures with us and the flowers, which was nice.  After the pictures, Fortunata and Ricardo’s daughter, Judith, arrived from Calca and Judith’s daughter, Chaska, was already there.  Soon, the six of us sat down to breakfast, which consisted of cake and a heavy hot chocolate drink made with a tub of butter.  With our stomachs hurting from this not-so-delicious breakfast, which our hosts thought was a delicacy, we headed to the cemetery (a birthday tradition?) to see Fortunata’s mother’s grave and place new flowers and take a group picture around the grave.  The cemetery was beautiful and it was nice to be part of this family event.  We then headed back to the house and Fortunata, Norma and Ronald (the two helpers in the house) started to furiously cook.  We realized lots more people would be joining us for Fortunata’s birthday.  Mariska started to help in the kitchen, but by then the kitchen was too full for me to help too, so I sat down with Judith who took out three large photo albums and showed me lots of old family pictures.  It was so much fun to see this pictures, I was able to learn more about the family’s lives.  I got to see Judith’s old school pictures, where her class went on field trips to places like Machu Picchu.  I also saw lots of pictures of Fortunata marching in various parades around Pisac and making speeches.  Apparently, she was a very important teacher and town’s person.  Even though she is retired, if I see people around town who ask me where I am living (i.e. restaurant owners, taxi drivers, etc) all I have to say is with Fortunata and everyone says “Oh! The profesora!” and know exactly who she is.

            After looking at pictures and talking to Judith about what ruins I have visited, it was time to clean the house a little more and wash the dog - everything was going to be spotless for Fortunata’s 60^th birthday!  Around 11:00, more people started to show up - Fortunata’s son and his wife and various friends.  We all sat down to another slice of cake.  At 12:30, we had a big lunch of cabiche (chicken and vegetables marinated in a vinegar and lemon broth).  Lunch was accompanied by the Peruvian drink chicha morado - the nonalcoholic version of the fermented corn drink.  I thought it was disgusting, which was too bad because every time someone said salud you had to take a big sip, and someone was always there to refill my glass.  When people could see I didn’t like it, they would start talking to me about how delicious the drink is and don’t I think it’s a delicious too, to get them to stop talking about the purple drink I would have to say that, yes, it was delicious and take a big sip.  However, this was not the worst of the food or drink to come.  Around 3:00 (yes, we had just eaten two hours earlier) we were served a giant dinner of the special birthday treat cuy (guinea pig)!  This time, I had no choice but to eat the whole piece.  Thankfully they served Mariska and me just a quarter of a cuy, whereas everyone else get a half or whole cuy.  I ate faster than I ever have before so that I didn’t have to think about what I was eating, taking small pieces of meat with big pieces of potato or a forkful of pasta.  Also on the plate, was a breaded and deep fried pepper stuffed with vegetables and chewy pieces of meat.  When I was done drinking my chicha and eating my cuy, I thought I was safe from more things that would make my stomach turn.  Wrong!  Next came a quinoa cocktail - cooked quinoa blended together with milk and pisco (a very strong alcohol).  It was disgusting!  I could not take more than a small sip.  Soon after the quinoa cocktail was served, one of Fortunata’s friend, Ruth, said that she had to go to drive another friend home to Urubamba and would then be back.  Fortunata asked if she would take Mariska and me with her (I don’t know if she wanted to get rid of us or if she wanted us to see Urubamba).  Before we left, three people ganged up on me to get me to drink my cocktail but I said no thank you, feeling guilty because of the sad looks on their faces, and quickly followed Ruth to her Car (this is the first Peruvian I have met that owns a car, which makes sense because there are no places to park in these small towns and gas is more than $5 per gallon).  The ride to Urubamba was back took two hours and was boring, but I was glad that I wasn’t being forced to eat or drink anything more.

            When we got back to the house around 7:30, music was blasting and there were about ten people still at the party dancing in a circle.  Mariska, Ruth, and I joined in and had a good time dancing for the next two hours.  At 9:30, we were served more cake and by 10:00 everyone was finally leaving.  It was a late night - usually we’re all off to bed by 8:00 - and we were all exhausted after the 14 hour long party.  However, it was a great day.  I got to eat and drink a lot of traditional Peruvian foods (even if I didn’t like them) and got to experience a real Peruvian birthday party, complete with speaking lots of Spanish to various family and friends.  It was a great day.

Back to Work

            After my weekend trip, it is especially nice to be back in Pisac and back in a regular schedule.  I feel like I never know what to expect from my teacher, Vanessa, but that is starting to become the expected.  I am still frustrated on some days (ok probably most days) but am learning to deal with it and work around my teacher.  Today, for example, Vanessa was working with only one table at a time and the kids at the other tables were goofing off.  I went to sit with one of the tables and had them start counting things around the room and on their bodies.  It was a good vocabulary lesson for me (I kept confusing ojos and orejas – eyes and ears – and the kids had a great time laughing at me and correcting me) and they got some practice counting.  After about ten minutes of this Vanessa heard what I was doing and immediately stopped what she was doing with the other table and stood in front of the room and asked the whole class to count their ears, eyes, legs, etc.  I couldn´t decide whether to be mad that she stole my idea and didn´t give me credit or flattered.  I think I will be flattered.

            Vanessa does some crazy things.  One of the weirdest activities we´ve done is pouring glue into the hands of each of the kids.  Then they were supposed to sit still until the glue dried and then they were supposed to peel the glue off.  Vanessa said this helps with their fine motor skills and she praised the kids that were able to get the biggest pieces of glue of their hands in one piece and scolded the kids that got frustrated and rubbed their hands together.  Another weird thing is that creativity does not seem to be praised in my classroom.  Vanessa wants the kids to color in the lines and use the colors she tells them to use.  Each assignment is graded with a stamp that says either excellente, bien, or triste (excellent, good, or sad/bad).  Vanessa will give the kids a triste stamp if they get the answer right but don´t color in the lines or don´t color dark enough.  It doesn´t seem right to me.  I am struggling between praising the kids for doing a relatively good job and taking Vanessa´s harsh stance.  When I let something slide, such as a picture that is colored slightly messy, Vanessa will step in and scold the child that I was working with.

            Although there are a lot of things that we do in the class that I don´t think are the most appropriate activities for five year olds or the best way to teach, we also have done some good things.  Last Friday, for example, I brought in a bunch of fruit and, as a class, we made a fruit salad.  It was a great activity because the kids were able to practice counting the fruit, practice naming the colors of the fruit, and learn about healthy food.  Today, I brought toothbrushes and toothpaste to the school, enough for each kid to have one toothbrush.  Most of the kids have rotting teeth and do not brush their teeth at home.  For many of the kids, this was their first time brushing their teeth and it was interesting to see how they reacted.  Vanessa brushed her own teeth first to show the kids what to do and many of them broke into nervous laughter as if she were doing something inappropriate.  When the kids got the chance to brush their own teeth many were nervous, thinking that it would hurt, actually it probably did hurt some of their gums.  It was interesting to see how new this was to them, whereas it is a regular habit for me.  We hope to have them brush their teeth every morning.

            As for my host family, I haven´t talked about them in a while because the school stuff is more on my mind now.  I don´t have much to report, but things have been good with them, but because I am so busy I really only see them at meals.  This Sunday is Fortunata´s birthday so Mariska and I are planning on making her pancakes for breakfast because she keeps talking about the pancakes a previous volunteer made.  That´s all for now!

Puno/Lake Titicaca

            Get ready for a LONG post!  Where to begin?  Friday night, Mariska, Sandy (who is an 18 year old boy from England who is teaching sports and living in Pisac) and I left for Puno.  This seemed straight forward: we had to go pay our travel agent, grab some dinner, and then go to the bus station to load the bus at 9:30.  The only thing wrong with this plan is that when we got to the bus station, there was no bus!!  At first I was stressed out that we had missed the bus, but soon we found a group of people all waiting for the same bus as us.  Around 10:45 we were told that the bus was not traveling to Puno (which is a 6.5 hour bus ride from Cusco) because the bus was too old to make the trip.  You think they would have figured that out before selling tickets to a mob of angry people…most people were able to refund their tickets and leave the next day, but we had already paid for our tour of Lake Titicaca starting early Saturday morning, so we needed to get to Puno.  We called our travel agent, Alice, and were surprised by how helpful she was - she came down to the bus station less than fifteen minutes after we called her.  Peruvian women are really good at making their voice really whiny and getting whatever they want, I’ve seen many women here do it, but Alice was a pro.  Alice complained to the bus company, but they told her that the next bus would not come until 4 in the morning, which would mean we would miss our two day tour.  By this time, what once had been a crowded terminal full of tourists and a dozen nice busses, was practically empty.  After Alice had talked to many people and our trip seemed like it wasn’t going to happen, we started to ask for a refund.  Alice was not happy about this - she was determined to get us to Puno.  She did not want to lose any money!  Around 11:45, a bus headed to Puno came into the station and quickly filled up.  Alice talked to the bus driver and told us our only option was to go on this bus and ride in the aisle.  I said absolutely not - 6.5 hours sitting in the aisle of a cramped bus feeling carsick did not sound like something I wanted to do.  The bus drove away while Alice was still trying to convince us to ride in the aisle, I guess her whiny voice didn‘t work on me.  She was really mad, but I did not feel bad.  Again, we tried to convince her to give us our money back which only made her more desperate to get us on a bus.  At 12:30 in the morning, after we had gone through every possibility (we thought) another bus came into the station.  Only Peruvians were lined up outside the door of the bus - all of the other busses had been primarily filled with tourists.  Alice bought the tickets off three people waiting to board the bus (I think she must have paid them 100 soles each and the tickets probably cost 25).  These people were still able to ride the bus in the aisle and we got seats.  We quickly boarded the bus for what would be the most unpleasant bus ride of my life.

            The bus ride:  We had paid for nice reclining “bed” seats on the bus that didn’t run, so I was especially disappointed to board this bus that was the most cramped coach bus I have ever been on.  Luckily, there was a 5 year old girl sitting next to me, so that gave me a little more room, but not much.  I was sitting in the aisle seat and had one of the women that Alice had bought our tickets from sitting on my foot for most of the ride.  The bus was stuffy and the heat was blasting, occasionally I would open the window but then the little girl sitting next to the window would shiver so I would feel bad and close it.  The road was curvy and had a lot of speed bumps, so we were constantly slowing down or speeding up.  I was so carsick.  It was awful.

            When we got to Puno at 7:00 a.m. I was so excited to be off the bus.  A driver picked us up and took us to a hotel where we got a quick breakfast of fresh squeezed orange juice, coca tea, and bread.  Coca tea, from the coca leaf, is meant to help with altitude sickness.  And since Puno/Lake Titicaca are 3800 meters above sea level (Cusco is about 3300 and Pisac is about 2900) I definitely felt the effects of altitude sickness and the coca tea helped.  At 7:30, I was still feeling a little carsick, but had to keep moving because another car was at the hotel to pick us up to start our tour on the Lake.

            We took the five minute ride from the hotel to the Lake and got on a small boat that was filled with about 30 tourists from all over the world.  Our first stop was a floating island.  When we got the island, which is truly floating and you can feel move, our tour guide talked to us about how the island is built - basically with lots of layers of grass - and about the people that live on the islands.  The people that live on the floating islands were originally from Bolivia (about 700 years ago) and fled to Lake Titicaca which borders Bolivia and Peru where they built floating islands.  The people of the floating islands speak Aymari, which is the Bolivian native language (Quechua is the Peruvian native language).  He said that the economy of the 63 total islands is solely based on tourism and fishing for trout.  This made sense because the island was so touristy.  It made me a little uncomfortable - it didn’t feel real, it was just a show.  However, I was still glad to experience the island because of how it is built.  It is really cool to be on such a large island that is completely manmade.

            Next, we headed to another floating island where we could buy souvenirs.  So touristy.  Then we were on our way to Amantani, an island that is made of solid ground.  I thought that the ride to Amantani would only take half an hour or an hour…boy was I wrong, after 3.5 long, sickening hours, we finally reached the island.  I was beyond happy to be on solid ground.  It was 1:30 pm and I had been on a boat or a floating island for the previous six hours.  However, I didn’t feel good for long.  We stayed with a host family on the island so our tour guide assigned us each a family and then we started an hour long trek up hill to our house.  It was brutal.  Between the lingering motion sickness, altitude sickness, tiredness, heavy backpack, and asthma, I was a wreck by the time we reached our house.  I laid down on my bed and cried.  After twenty minutes we had lunch and then rested a little more.  That was all the bad stuff, now for the good stuff.

            Around 3:30 that afternoon we set out with other tourists to hike around the island.  I was feeling so much better and happy to walk around.  Amantani island has two important pre-Incan ruins - a temple to the pachatata (father earth) and a temple to the pachamama (mother earth).  The temples are on the two highest peaks of the island.  First, we climbed to the pachatata temple on the lower peak, where there were amazing views of the Lake and mountains and we could see Bolivia.  Then we hiked back down to where we had started and took the hike to the highest point of the island to see the pachamama temple.  I took this hike extremely slowly and let myself enjoy my surroundings.  It was hard, but beautiful.  At 4,130 meters above sea level, it felt like I could touch the clouds.  We watched a beautiful sunset over Lake Titicaca.

            Then we headed back down to our host family’s house and had dinner.  After dinner, we were dressed in traditional clothes and headed out to a “discotheque.”  This was super touristy and reminded me of dressing up in the Lisu’s traditional clothes when I was in Thailand.  The “discotheque” was a cold basement room of the school and four young boys (probably ages 7 to 14) played the panpipes, drum, and two guitars.  We danced in circles with the other tourists and host families while the music was playing, but the boys took long breaks between each song which meant we had long awkward silences where everyone just sat on benches around the outsides of the rooms.  After an hour of dancing, we happily headed back to our house for a 9:30 bedtime.

            The next morning, Sunday, we woke up at 6 a.m. so that we could have breakfast and then head down to the boat.  The walk down hill was much easier than up, but was still a hard 25 minute walk, which made me feel better about how awful I had felt the day before on the way up.  We got on the boat and went to another island called Taquille.  We took another hard, but beautiful two hour hike up the mountain, taking breaks along the way for our tour guide to tell us about ruins found on the island and also the different clothing men and women wear depending on if they are married.  Then we climbed 600 stairs down to the other side of the mountain where our boat was waiting for us.

            Thankfully I was able to sleep for the 2.5 hour ride to the floating island where we had lunch, so I did not get too sea sick.  Lunch was fresh trout and coca tea.  Afterwards we went back to Puno, which was just half an hour away from the floating island.  When we got to Puno we were picked up in a collectivo and brought to our hotel where we took hot showers and watched a movie in English.  Then we met up with three other volunteers, who were doing the same trip as us but staying at a different hotel, for dinner.  At the restaurant, which was also very touristy, there was a Peruvian dance show and I was able to try very fresh ceviche.  Then we went to a giant Peruvian grocery store, which was fun, and then back to the hotel to sleep!

            Monday morning, we all woke up at 6 a.m. to have breakfast and then Mariska and Sandy went to Copacabana, Bolivia for the day at 7:00.  I didn’t go to Bolivia because it costs $130 for Americans (and Asians) to cross the Bolivian border - something about the Bolivian government being friends with the Cuban government?  I don’t know - that’s what the travel agent told me.  Anyway, I had a lovely and relaxing day by myself.  I took a nap after breakfast, watched TV, went out to lunch at a restaurant overlooking the plaza and a huge 1700s church that I saw a funeral march coming out of - complete with a brass band.  After lunch I went on a tour to see the chulpas (tombs) at Sillustani, which is a place close to Puno.  The chulpas were awesome, there are some that are pre-Incan and some that are Incan and it is cool to see how similar they look.  The Incas clearly copied the pre-Incan design, but were more skilled builders.  Apparently each tomb has a small door facing the rising sun and the royalty that were buried in these particular tombs were put in the fetal position because the pre-Incas and Incas believed in rebirth.  Besides seeing these massive tombs, my favorite part of the tour was how much Spanish I understood.  The guide said everything in Spanish first and then repeated it in English, so I was able to check my comprehension.  Unfortunately, only a half hour into the tour it started to downpour.  Thankfully I was wearing my raincoat, but I wasn’t able to take as many pictures as I would have liked and my pants (the only pair I had brought) got completely drenched.  When it started to hail, the guide wrapped up the tour and we headed back to the van, uncomfortably wet and sad I hadn’t gotten to see all of the chulpas.

                When I got back to Puno, I went directly to buy new pants.  Almost all of the tourist shops selling alpaca sweaters, hats, etc, sell cotton striped pants, so I was able to easily buy myself a pair of purple and blue striped pants for 17 soles.  I quickly went to a restaurant and changed into my new pants and dry socks (I guess my supposedly waterproof hiking boots can’t handle such hard rain).  When I was much more comfortable, I went into the restaurant and had dinner.  Then I returned to the hotel where I waited in the lobby for a taxi to pick me up to take me to the bus station.  I met Sandy and Mariska at the bus station at 9 and we were thrilled that our bus was already there.  We left on time in comfortable seats at 9:30.  I was able to sleep the whole time and not get too carsick.  We got to Cusco at 4 in the morning and were home in Pisac by 5, so I was able to sleep for two hours before having breakfast and heading off for my regular work in the kindergarten.

            So, it was a long weekend and a good trip, but it definitely had it’s ups and downs.  My motion sickness and how touristy everything was made this trip not as great as I expected.  However, I loved seeing the Lake (its bright blue waters accompanied by mountains all around were really beautiful), I took some great hikes, and the stars the night I stayed in Amantani were unbelievable.  I am glad that I had this experience and it feels even better to be in Pisac now!  I think that one of the best parts of this trip was missing Pisac and having it feel like home.

It has been a whole month?

            I have had a good past few days.  On Saturday, Mariska and I went to Cusco in order to talk to a travel agent about planning a trip to Lake Titicaca this coming weekend.  I am very excited to see another part of Peru and it seems like it will be a good trip…I will write about it when I get back!  I was also able to buy Machu Picchu tickets for my family´s Halloween trip, which were surprisingly hard to figure out how to buy.  I can´t wait for my family to be here in less than a month!  We walked around Cusco, saw Incan walls in the middle of the city, had a good lunch, and did some shopping.  The highlight of the day was going to Mercado San Pedro where you can buy anything, from any type of fruit, to clothing, to desserts, to band uniforms, to souvenirs, to flowers, to pigs’ heads.  It is colorful and not very touristy.  Sunday was nice because I didn´t do anything.  I was tired of traveling and wanted to explore Pisac, so we walked around the Market and hung out around Pisac which was really nice.

            Today, at the kindergarten, I tried to work on counting with Moises and Diego.  I spent over an hour with them outside, just the three of us, working on counting to ten.  I had them match dots that I had colored on pieces of papers to dots I had drawn on their fingers and then count the dots and their fingers, I had them count while they jumped up and down, I had them count my fingers, I had them count people in photographs, I had them count rocks.  For a while it felt that the two boys were making progress, but they would be able to count to about 6 once or twice and then only remember how to count to 4 again.  Moises got very distracted and started to distract Diego, so I sent him inside and worked with Diego alone.  He was able to count to 5 pretty consistently by the end of my time with him, but by the end of the day could only count to 4 again.  It is very strange and I am not quite sure what else to do to help these boys.  It´s sad because I think the teacher is going to just keep moving ahead and leave them behind to struggle.  I think that Moises is kind of unaware or just doesn´t care that he is struggling more than his peers, but I can tell that Diego knows and is upset about it.  The teacher asks Diego to count in front of the class pretty often too, which is not good because he can´t do it and the other kids are starting to catch on that they know more than Diego does and are treating him as an inferior.  I hope I can work more with these boys tomorrow.

            Today was nice because Mariska and I were able to meet three new volunteers who just got to Pisac, two today from Texas and one on Friday from England.  The two girls from Texas will be joining me at the school in San Salvador tomorrow, so that should be nice.  It is fun to have more people in Pisac, for the past month the only volunteers in Pisac have been Mariska and me, so we have had to meet up with volunteers in Urubamba or Cusco.  It will be nice to have friends closer by.

            Time is moving so fast, I can´t believe I have been here for a month!